Mixed Remixed Festival

Pink Martini Dream a Little Dream

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Heidi Durrow Mixed Roots Mixed Remixed
Festival Founder Heidi Durrow and her childhood friend Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale

Pink_Martini,_Dream_a_Little_DreamI was reminded this weekend of how much I love the group Pink Martini headed by my childhood friend Thomas Lauderdale when I heard his wonderful voice on NPR in an interview with Scott Simon.  He and the band including the ever-amazing China Forbes have collaborated with the Von Trapp Family singers and are on tour.  You can check out the great multicultural mash-up of music they have created in their latest CD Dream a Little Dream.–Heidi Durrow

The Problem with the “What are You?” Question

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2014-06-17 16.44.36We recently asked you on Facebook what you hate most about the “What are you?” question.  Here are some of your answers:

  • “The way some people say it and look at you as though you’re from a different planet. Lol”
  • “Nothing. I would rather be something different than something easily categorized.”
  • “For me, it’s not the question. It’s the look of disbelief like I’m lying. Like “are you sure?””
  • “If it’s asked early on in a conversation it is off-putting to me because I think they are trying to size me up based on racial stereotypes. If they ask me after we’ve been chatting for a while, about something relative such as history or culture or my personal experiences, then I don’t mind it.”
  • “The inclination that I am nothing if I can’t be defined.”
  • “It is a blessing to be asked because people cant pigeonhole u. If they ask, its a compliment. Rather than assuming.”
  • “Sounds like you’re not “human.””

What do you think? — Heidi Durrow

Festival Fave: James McBride’s Good Lord Bird Now in Paperback

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If you haven’t read The Good Lord Bird by Mixed Remixed Festival favorite James McBride, get it now in paperback. The National Book Award winning book is the kind of story we like to celebrate at the Mixed Remixed Festival. This is how the National Book Award fla-la-ca-0823-james-mcbride-016-jpg-20130828olks describe it: “James McBride’s novel takes a pivotal, troubled sequence in American history—John Brown’s abolitionist campaign—and retells it in a voice as comic and original as any we have heard since Mark Twain. The narrator is one Henry Shackleford, aka Onion, an escaped teenaged slave who accompanies Brown while disguised as a girl. Fondly portraying Brown as a well-meaning but unhinged zealot, The Good Lord Bird is daringly irreverent, but also wise, funny, and affecting.”  I just call it darn good.-Heidi Durrow

Top 10 Favorite Kids’ Books for Multiracial Kids and Teens

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CoverWe thought as the kids head back to school we’d share some of our favorite kids’ books for multiracial children and families for all those book reports that will be due soon.  Check some of these out and let us know what you think!

  • Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson (YA)
  • Bird by Crystal Chan (YA)
  • Amy Hodgepodge by Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts (series)
  • Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (YA)
  • Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena (YA)
  • The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (YA)
  • All the Colors of the Race by Arnold Adoff (poetry)
  • I am Mixed by Sebastian Jones and Garcelle Beauvais
  • I am Flippish by Leslie Ryan
  • Half and Half by Lensey Namioka

Oh, and we’re also kind of partial to our Festival founder’s book which is written for adults but skews YA and is taught at high schools across the country: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow

Race-Shifting in New Novel by Jess Row

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yourfaceinmineI’m excited to read this new book by Jess Row, Your Face in Mine.  It’s about a white Jewish man who undergoes racial re-assignment surgery and becomes a black man.  It puts me in mind of one of my favorite books by George Schuyler called Black No More.  You can read a little about the book here in a New York Times story by Felicia Lee. And read Festival favorite writer Emily Raboteau’s New York Times Book Review take on the book here. —Heidi Durrow

1st Mixed Remixed Write-In Now in Seattle and LA! Oct. 11 at 11am

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UPDATE: THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD ON OCT. 25, 2014 AT 11AM.  SAME LOCATIONS! We’re excited to have our very first write-in.  Now you can meet-up in Los Angeles and the Seattle Area.  Bring your neglected work-in-progress and laptop or paper and pen and get energized by your fellow Mixed Remixed writers.  And please let us know that you’re coming so we can save some tables together!  RSVP here.

Los Angeles: at the Coffee Connection, 3838 S. Centinela Avenue, LA, CA.

Seattle: Third Place Books, Lake Forest Place, 17171 NE Bothell Way, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

See you then! – Heidi Durrow

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Don’t miss a single update on the Mixed Remixed Festival and our upcoming meet-ups!  Join our mailing list!Heidi Durrow, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele  Subscribe to our mailing list

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